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Al-Aqsa Mosque
(الجامع الاقصى)

Title	Al-Aqsa Mosque
Title Original	الجامع الاقصى
Publication Date:	65- 96 / 685 - 715
Type	Other
Language	Undetermined
Digital	Yes
Manuscript	No
Library:	Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID	monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;3;ar
Library Location	The building is located south of the Dome of the Rock, on the southern border of the Noble Sanctuary, Jerusalem
Date	65- 96 / 685 - 715
Notes	Al-Aqsa Mosque means the rectangular roofed building located inside the Holy Mosque. The mosque was built on top of an architectural settlement based on columns and supports, due to the slope of the mosque area towards the south, which required bridging the difference in heights. The layout of the current mosque is the result of accumulations and architectural changes that resulted in several construction stages, the number and dates of which historians and researchers differed in. The initial features of the Al-Aqsa Mosque are attributed to Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab (r. 13-23 / 634-644), who built a mihrab and a simple mosque on the site of the current mosque. Mujir al-Din (d. 928 / 1521) mentions that Caliph Omar, after he cleaned the area of the Haram of rubble and uncovered the sacred rock, consulted those with him about the location of the mosque, and he was advised to place it to the north of the rock, but he refused, saying: “...Rather, we make the qibla his chest [i.e., the southern wall of the Haram], just as the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, made the qibla of our mosques their chests...” The traveler Arculf reported, around the year 49 - 50 / 670 A simple description of a mosque located in the southern courtyard of the Haram. The description shows that the mosque was built on great [wooden] supports from reused materials available in the area, and that it could accommodate three thousand worshipers. Nothing tangible remains of this mosque, known as the Al-Omari Mosque, as it was rebuilt starting in the year 65 / 685. The reason for the rebuilding may be that the Al-Omari Mosque was modest and did not fit with the comprehensive plan drawn up for the Al-Haram area during the reign of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, which included the construction of a more luxurious mosque that reflected the power of the Islamic state. Then. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was built during the reign of Abd al-Malik from fifteen porticoes, but only the southern wall remains today, as several earthquakes struck the region and caused the demolition of large parts of the mosque, which required its rebuilding. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was converted during the period of Frankish rule into a church, and a large apse was added on the eastern side of the mosque that conforms to the layout of churches facing east, and this apse still remains today. The western part of the mosque was used as a place to house the Knights Templar, and a dining hall was added to the west of the mosque, where the southern section of the Islamic Museum is located. The current mosque has nine doors, seven of which are located in its northern wall, and one in each of the western and eastern walls. The northern wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is preceded by a colonnade consisting of seven naves, each of which is covered by a cross vault. This corridor opens onto the courtyard of the Holy Mosque with large pointed arches. The horizontal plan of the mosque is a rectangle with dimensions of 80 x 50 metres, and it consists of seven corridors extending from north to south, the middle of which is the widest and the highest. The three western galleries are based on large pillars, while the eastern galleries are based on a group of marble columns that were imported from Italy during the restoration of this section by the Supreme Islamic Sharia Council in the first half of the twentieth century. At the southern end of the middle portico there is a hemispherical wooden dome supported by corner arches. At the bottom of the dome there is a beautiful mihrab, the construction of which was ordered by Saladin al-Ayyubi, when he liberated the mosque from the hands of the Franks in the year 583 / 1187. To the right of this mihrab was a wooden platform, which was ordered by Nur al-Din Zengi (reigned in Syria in the period 541-569 / 1146-1174) to be placed in Al-Aqsa after its recovery from the hands of the Franks. This pulpit was destroyed on August 21, 1969, as a result of the deliberate fire that broke out in the mosque.
Sample Text	Yusuf al-Natsheh “Al-Aqsa Mosque” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;3;ar

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Museum With No Frontiers

Al-Aqsa Mosque

(الجامع الاقصى)

Publication Date 65- 96 / 685 - 715

Type Other

Language Undetermined

Digital Yes

Manuscript No

Library Museum With No Frontiers

Record ID monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;3;ar

Library Location The building is located south of the Dome of the Rock, on the southern border of the Noble Sanctuary, Jerusalem

Date 65- 96 / 685 - 715

Notes Al-Aqsa Mosque means the rectangular roofed building located inside the Holy Mosque. The mosque was built on top of an architectural settlement based on columns and supports, due to the slope of the mosque area towards the south, which required bridging the difference in heights. The layout of the current mosque is the result of accumulations and architectural changes that resulted in several construction stages, the number and dates of which historians and researchers differed in. The initial features of the Al-Aqsa Mosque are attributed to Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab (r. 13-23 / 634-644), who built a mihrab and a simple mosque on the site of the current mosque. Mujir al-Din (d. 928 / 1521) mentions that Caliph Omar, after he cleaned the area of the Haram of rubble and uncovered the sacred rock, consulted those with him about the location of the mosque, and he was advised to place it to the north of the rock, but he refused, saying: “...Rather, we make the qibla his chest [i.e., the southern wall of the Haram], just as the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, made the qibla of our mosques their chests...” The traveler Arculf reported, around the year 49 - 50 / 670 A simple description of a mosque located in the southern courtyard of the Haram. The description shows that the mosque was built on great [wooden] supports from reused materials available in the area, and that it could accommodate three thousand worshipers. Nothing tangible remains of this mosque, known as the Al-Omari Mosque, as it was rebuilt starting in the year 65 / 685. The reason for the rebuilding may be that the Al-Omari Mosque was modest and did not fit with the comprehensive plan drawn up for the Al-Haram area during the reign of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, which included the construction of a more luxurious mosque that reflected the power of the Islamic state. Then. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was built during the reign of Abd al-Malik from fifteen porticoes, but only the southern wall remains today, as several earthquakes struck the region and caused the demolition of large parts of the mosque, which required its rebuilding. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was converted during the period of Frankish rule into a church, and a large apse was added on the eastern side of the mosque that conforms to the layout of churches facing east, and this apse still remains today. The western part of the mosque was used as a place to house the Knights Templar, and a dining hall was added to the west of the mosque, where the southern section of the Islamic Museum is located. The current mosque has nine doors, seven of which are located in its northern wall, and one in each of the western and eastern walls. The northern wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is preceded by a colonnade consisting of seven naves, each of which is covered by a cross vault. This corridor opens onto the courtyard of the Holy Mosque with large pointed arches. The horizontal plan of the mosque is a rectangle with dimensions of 80 x 50 metres, and it consists of seven corridors extending from north to south, the middle of which is the widest and the highest. The three western galleries are based on large pillars, while the eastern galleries are based on a group of marble columns that were imported from Italy during the restoration of this section by the Supreme Islamic Sharia Council in the first half of the twentieth century. At the southern end of the middle portico there is a hemispherical wooden dome supported by corner arches. At the bottom of the dome there is a beautiful mihrab, the construction of which was ordered by Saladin al-Ayyubi, when he liberated the mosque from the hands of the Franks in the year 583 / 1187. To the right of this mihrab was a wooden platform, which was ordered by Nur al-Din Zengi (reigned in Syria in the period 541-569 / 1146-1174) to be placed in Al-Aqsa after its recovery from the hands of the Franks. This pulpit was destroyed on August 21, 1969, as a result of the deliberate fire that broke out in the mosque.

Sample Text Yusuf al-Natsheh “Al-Aqsa Mosque” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;3;ar